Editorial
List of land grabbers before JS
There can be no alternative to swift action
THE placing of a partial list of land grabbers by the minister of state for environment in the Jatiyo Sangsad last week brings to the fore once again an issue of intense public interest. In the past few years, much has been said and written about the predatory manner in which individuals and organisations have gone about commandeering public as well as privately-owned land across the country. To the shock of the nation, these land grabbers, instead of feeling ashamed, have been acting as if it is the usual thing to seize property from others. No one could have said it better than the minister of state for works who, at a meeting with REHAB representatives a couple of weeks ago, lambasted these land grabbers in public.
That the present government is seized of the issue and making a serious move to hold them to account is a very welcome development. Now that the list of land grabbers has been placed before the JS, we believe it is an absolute necessity for the government to go all the way towards ensuring that all the seized land will be freed of such grasping hands and restored to their original conditions. The list covers only a hundred acres of a total of 11,700 acres grabbed in Gazipur. There are two points that must be made here. The first is that if 11,700 acres have been commandeered in only one district, one can only imagine the extraordinary levels to which land must have been grabbed in all the 64 districts of the country. The second point here is that the government must institute action against these land grabbers swiftly and in an effective manner manner. There would be little point in taking incremental action. It is quite clear that tens of thousands of acres are in the grip of land grabbers. Now, if the authorities move too slowly (such as through acting over a hundred acres and the like), the momentum to clear the land of those who have seized it might simply fizzle out. Lest that happen, we urge the government to do a couple of things here. First, let a full, comprehensive list of illegally acquired land (along with the names of the predators) be prepared and made public through the JS; and, second, let the judicial and administrative machinery be swiftly readied towards an eviction of the grabbers.
The partial list presented in the JS last week mentions 47 individuals and 22 organisations behind the land grabbing in Gazipur. It is but a sign of something more sinister, namely, the nexus that has developed between land grabbers and individuals within the administration itself. For years there have been reports of collusion between land grabbers and corrupt elements in the land administration structure. It is now time not only to evict land grabbers but also flush out these corrupt elements in the administration itself, for they have been as responsible as anyone else in making the real owners of land as well as the government suffer from such brigandage. Let a full and meaningful inquiry be initiated into the scandal and let the results be followed by purposeful action in the public interest. Those who have stolen land and have then tried to put a gloss on their expropriation by various means must be brought to account. The culture of plunder needs to end here and now. If it does not, hordes of new robber barons will sprout and simply seize the country from the millions who constitute this people's republic.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments